1. Probably K175 with the new rondo finale K382, see letter 130, n. 4.
2. This was the grand academy, a public concert at the Burgtheater given in the presence of the emperor.
3. K297 ‘Paris’.
4. K294.
5.In 1776 Joseph II had installed a theatrical company (the National Theatre) at the Burgtheater to present plays in German (instead of the French drama favoured by the aristocracy). A singspiel company was established in 1778 but was disbanded in 1783 and replaced by an Italian opera troupe; it was briefly reconstituted from 1785 to 1788, with performances held at the Kärntnertortheater.
6. The bass Johann Ignaz Ludwig Fischer.
7. K314.
8. K321 and K339; the masses are unidentified.
9. Anton Teyber, see List.
10. Mozart is asking Leopold to send copies of Salzburg church music: Michael Haydn’s offertory Tres sunt (composed 7 June 1773), for which there is a copy by Mozart, KAnh. A13, from the mid-1770s; the sequence Lauda Sion(1775); the fugue from the Te Deum(1770), for which there is a copy by Leopold Mozart, KAnh. 71; and the offertory Ave Maria (from before 1765). The Tenebrae (undated) is by Johann Ernst Eberlin; there is a copy by Leopold Mozart, KAnh. A76.
11. A request that Leopold send some of his own church music.
12. The portrait painter Joseph Grassi (c. 1758–1838) lived and worked in Vienna during the 1780s; his Portrait of a Man(1785), for many years considered lost but rediscovered in Moscow in 1998, is sometimes said to portray Mozart.
13.K446. Mozart’s pantomime, a silent play with musical accompaniment (in this case based on commedia dell’arte characters), survives only incompletely as a fragmentary first violin part.
14. Johann Heinrich Friedrich Müller (1738–1815), actor at the Vienna Court Theatre from 1763 to 1801.
15. Possibly Johann Nepomuk, Count Esterha´zy (1754–1840); Mozart is known to have performed regularly at his house (see letter 140).
1. Presumably the accompanied sonatas K296+376–380.
2. K255, Ombra felice – Io ti lascio, composed in 1776 for the castrato Francesco Fortini; K374, A questo seno deh vieni – Or che il cielo a me ti rende.
3. Therese Teyber’s concert was at the Burgtheater on 30 March.
4. The grand academy; the concerto was K415.
5. Carl Friedrich Cramer, Magazin der Musik, Hamburg, 9 May 1783: ‘Vienna, 22 March 1783… Tonight the famous Herr Chevalier Mozart held a musical concert in the National Theatre, at which pieces of his already highly admired composition were performed. The concert was honoured with an exceptionally large concourse, and the two new concertos and other fantasies which Herr M. played on the fortepiano were received with the loudest applause. Our Monarch, who against his habit attended the whole of the concert, as well as the entire audience, accorded him such unanimous applause as has never been heard of here. The receipts of the concert are estimated to amount to 1,600 gulden in all’ (Deutsch, Documentary Biography, 215). The report gives the wrong date for the concert; it should have been 23 March.
1. Jean-Georges Sieber (1734–1822), publisher in Paris, had published Mozart’s accompanied sonatas K301–306 in 1778.
2. K296+376–380.
3. K413–415.
4. These were eventually to be the six quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn, K387, 421, 428, 458, 464 and 465. By this time Mozart may have completed only the first of the quartets, although K421 and 428 were also written about the time of this letter. K458 was completed in November 1784 and K464 and 465 in January 1785.
5. Although Sieber’s reply is lost, he apparently rejected Mozart’s offer. Artaria eventually published both the concertos and quartets in 1785.
1. ‘examination’… ‘male or female’.
2. Presumably the sonatas op. 7, published by Artaria in 1782. In 1783 Artaria also published Clementi’s sonatas opp. 9 and 10.
3. ‘charlatan’.
4. Johann von Fichtl was a Salzburg court agent in Vienna; privy councillor Optat Basilius Aman (1747–85) had bought property near Salzburg, but Mozart’s comment is ironic.
5. In a letter of 7 May 1783 Mozart had asked Leopold to approach Giambattista Varesco, the librettist of Idomeneo, for a new libretto to set.
6. Mozart and Constanze planned a visit that summer to Salzburg.
1. Raimund, Baron Wetzlar von Plankenstern (1752–1810) had been Wolfgang and Constanze’s landlord when they lived at Wipplingerstrasse 14 from December 1782 to April 1783.
1. Idomeneo.
2. The opera L’oca del Cairo(‘The Goose of Cairo’) K422, to a text by Varesco, was left incomplete by Mozart; the buffa aria was ‘Siano pronte alle gran nozze’, the quartet ‘S’oggi, oh Dei, sperar mi fate’ and the finale ‘Su via, putti, presto, presto!’
3. Bernhard, Baron Deglmann, councillor in the Bohemian-Austrian chancellery
4. K423 and 424; Bach’s fugues cannot be identified with certainty. About 1782 Mozart had arranged five fugues from Book II of The Well-Tempered Keyboard for string quartet (nos. 1–5, K405).
5. For the Vienna Tonkünstler-Sozietät.
6. Maria Margarethe (Gretl) was the sister of Heinrich Marchand, Leopold’s pupil; Maria Johanna (Hanni) Brochard (1775–?), daughter of the Munich dancer Georg Paul Brochard, was another pupil.
7. The violinist Franz Lamotte.
1. Johann Philipp Freyhold, flautist in service to the Margrave of Baden-Durlach.
2. ‘annoyance’, meaning that Leopold would be burdened with additional teaching duties to the boys at the Chapel House.
3. Possibly K448, K425 ‘Linz’, K449.
1. Presumably K413–415.
2. The Trattnerhof, the property owned by Johann Thomas von Trattner and his wife where Mozart and Constanze were renting rooms, included a concert hall.
3. The two subsequent concerts took place on 24 and 31 March.
4. In the event, Mozart gave only one concert, on 1 April.
5. Georg Friedrich Richter (c. 1759–89).
6. This concert did not take place.
1. K450 and 451, K452.
2. The other works on the programme included the ‘Linz’ symphony K425, arias sung by Adamberger, Cavalieri and Luigi Marchesi (1755–1829), a famous castrato.
3. The texts are from Metastasio’s L’Olimpiade; Gatti’s settings date from 1775.
4.K453.
5. Leopold III, Count Pa´lffy.
6. There is no record that this concert took place.
7. The civil servant Gottfried Ignaz von Ployer (c. 1743–97), a cousin of Barbara von Ployer’s father, the tax collector and timber merchant Franz Kajetan von Ployer (1734–1803); Barbara lived at Gottfried’s house.
8. Zeno Franz Menzel (1756–1823) did not get the post but later became violinist in the Vienna court chapel.
9. Although these quartets cannot be identified with certainty, they probably included the first three of the quartets dedicated to Haydn, K387, 421 and 428; see also letter 148.
1. Regina Strinasacchi (1764–1839), a twenty-year-old violin virtuosa.
2. K454; the concert, attended by the emperor, was on 29 April 1784 at the Kärntnertortheater.
3. Ignaz Joseph Pleyel (1757–1831) studied with Haydn from 1772 to 1777.
1.K450.
2.K451.
3.K453.
4.K449.
5. Apparently Mozart did not wait: at least some of the concertos were available in manuscript copies from the Viennese music dealer Lorenz Lausch (?1737–94) as early as 10 July 1784. Only the concerto K453 was published in an engraved edition during Mozart’s lifetime (Speyer: Bossler, 1787).
6. The Mozarts’ maid.
7. Barbara Schwemmer.
1. On 23 August 1784, Nannerl, at the age of thirty-three, married Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg of St Gilgen.
2. St Gilgen was about a six-hour coach ride from Salzburg.
1. Anna Helena née Wohlhaupt (1723–97), wife of the grenadier captain Johann Jo
seph Hermann Hermes von Fürstenhof (1723–1809).
2. i.e. his son-in-law.
3. Strobl and St Wolfgang are villages not far from St Gilgen.
4. Leopold’s cook.
5. Maria Anna Zezi, wife of the merchant Johann Bernhard Zezi (1742–1813).
6. Franz Armand d’Ippold (c. 1730—91), court military councillor in Salzburg; Nannerl Mozart had been disappointed in her hopes of marrying him.
7. Michelangelo Bologna, castrato active in Salzburg 1782–4.
8. Two of Nannerl’s step-children, Anna Margarete (Nannerl) and Wolfgang. Johann Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, a widower twice over, had five children by his previous marriages.
1. Leopold usually means his son-in-law when he writes ‘my son’ in his letters to Nannerl, but here he refers to Wolfgang, whose name day was 31 October.
2. The amateur musician; see letter 87.
3. The stewards were required to carry a canopy over the archbishop’s head during services in the cathedral.
4. ‘Martern aller Arten’. Of the court musicians mentioned here, nothing for certain is known of Reiner: for the others, see letters 54 and 100.
5. Ludwig Schmidt (c. 1740–1814), director of the Ansbach-Bayreuth comedy troupe that was putting on Die Entführung.
6. Meaning Leopold.
7. Margarethe (Gretl) Marchand had sung at a ‘Concert des Amateurs’, a private undertaking, in Munich attended by Elector Karl Theodor; Alessio Prati (1750–88) was a composer.
8. Dorothea Wendling (1767–1839) became virtuosa da camera in Munich in 1788.
9. Lisel Wendling.
10. Gasparo Pacchierotti (1744–1821), castrato.
11. Leopold and Nannerl used the glass carrier, who seems to have made a regular round trip between Salzburg and St Gilgen, as a postal service. It is not known what sort of glass she carried, or why.
12. Unidentified.
13. Alois, Count Rechberg (1766–1849). He and his brother Anton, Count Rechberg (1776–1837) were friends of Mozart’s in Vienna.
14.K453.
15. Players in Ludwig Schmidt’s troupe.
16. Leopold agrees with his son-in-law about the current political unrest in the Austrian Netherlands.
17. Maria Johanna Brochard, Leopold’s former pupil. In 1790 she obtained a post with the Munich court theatre.
1. Die Entführung aus dem Serail.
2. The archbishop’s sister-in-law.
3. Die Entführung was given at Mainz on 24 January 1784 and at Mannheim on 18 April 1784. The earliest documented performance in Berlin is 16 October 1788, some four years after the date of this letter.
4. In late July 1766.
5. Nannerl’s step-daughter, Maria Anna Margarethe.
6. Maria Margarethe Polis von Moulin (1746–79), Berchtold zu Sonnenburg’s first wife, was the mother of four of his five children.
7. Joseph Barisani (1756–1826), eldest son of the archbishop’s physician, Silvester Barisani.
8. Strasswalchen is a town northeast of Salzburg, but it is unclear what this refers to.
9. ‘from the breast to the arse’… ‘from the arse’. A promotion in petto(‘within the breast’) is one made in secret.
1. 11 February.
2. The city casino on the Neuer Markt and a venue for concerts.
3. Unidentified.
4.K466.
5. Anton and Bartholomäus Tinti were both members of the Masonic lodge ‘Zur wahren Eintracht’ (‘True Concord’). Soon after this Anton Tinti became resident Salzburg minister in Vienna.
6.K458, 464 and 465, the final three of the six quartets dedicated to the composer Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) and first performed privately on 15 January; Leopold already knew the quartets K387, 421 and 428.
7. Luisa Laschi (c. 1760–c. 1790) was engaged at the Italian opera in Vienna from 1784 to 1790; she sang the roles of the Countess at the premiere of Le nozze di Figaro(1786) and Zerlina at the first Viennese performance of Don Giovanni in 1788. The concert was at the Burgtheater.
8.K456; the blind piano virtuosa Maria Theresia Paradies (1759–1824).
9. See letter 121, n. 2; she was the intended wife of Archduke Franz (1768–1835), eldest son of Leopold, Archduke of Tuscany.
10. Elisabeth Distler (1769–89), singer, sister of the violinist and composer Johann Georg Distler (1760–99).
11.K466.
12. Gottfried Ployer lived in Döbling, a Viennese suburb.
13. Leopold refers to Elector Karl Theodor’s proposal to give Lower Bavaria to Austria in exchange for the Austrian Netherlands (roughly equivalent to modern Belgium); this would give him a stronger power base in northern Europe and the hope of a royal crown. It made him very unpopular in Bavaria.
1. Heinrich Marchand gave a concert on 2 March at the Burgtheater.
2. Nothing is known of this concert.
3. The actress Marianne Boudet was married to the horn player Martin Lang.
4. See letter 89, n. 2; the concerts were on 23 and 28 February and 7 March. Mozart may have played at some or all of them.
5. Christoph Torricella (c. 1715–98), music publisher. He published the first editions of Mozart’s variations on ‘Ah, vous dirai-je Maman’ K265, ‘Salve tu, Domine’ K398 and ‘Unser dummer Pöbel meint’ K455, as well as the keyboard sonatas K284 and 333 and the accompanied sonata K454.
6. In the event, Mozart never completed a keyboard arrangement of Die Entführung aus dem Serail; the earliest surviving complete arrangement was published at Mainz in 1785 or 1786. The three sonatas are K284, 333 and 454 (the last with violin accompaniment).
7. Mozart had performed on his pedal piano at his Burgtheater concert of 10 March 1785; the announcement of the concert makes it clear that the instrument was a novelty: ‘On Thursday, 10th March 1785 Herr Kapellmeister Mozart will have the honour of giving at the I. & R. National Court Theatre a Grand Musical Concert for his benefit, at which not only a new, just finished Forte piano Concerto will be played by him, but also an especially large Forte piano pedale will be used by him in improvising.’ See Deutsch, Documentary Biography, 239.
8. The Tonkünstler-Sozietät concert on 13 March included the first performance of Mozart’s cantata Davidde penitente K469, adapted from his unfinished mass in C minor K427.
9. Presumably K448.
1. The reconstituted German opera company survived until 1788; see letter 132, n. 5.
2. Here Mozart writes ironically.
1. i.e. his grandson.
2. Anna Maria Pietschner, see letter 18, n. 1.
3. The play by Christian Heinrich Schmid, see letter 101, n. 6.
4. Berchtold zu Sonnenburg’s son by his second wife.
1. The concerto played by Heinrich Marchand was K466; Haydn is of course Michael Haydn.
2. Fr Dominicus Hagenauer was abbot of St Peter’s in Salzburg; the abbot of Baumburg, an Augustinian monastery in Upper Bavaria, was Albert Knol; the region of Franconia was in southern Germany.
3. Johann Lorenz Hagenauer.
4. Johann Evangelist Schmid (1757–1804) was court organ builder in Salzburg; his predecessor (see below) was Johann Rochus Egedacher (1714–85).
5. Probably a Hanswurst character.
6. Franz Anton von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg (1749–1809), Nannerl’s brother-in-law.
7. Nannerl’s maid.
8. Leopold refers to a cutting with acrostics and riddles; it has not been reproduced here. Some lines in this paragraph referring to riddles have also been omitted.
9. Lorenz Hübner (1753–1807), editor of the Salzburger Staatszeitung.
1. Sebastian Winter, the Mozarts’ former valet, was now in service to Prince Joseph Maria Benedikt of FĀrstenberg (1758–96). In August 1786 Mozart had offered the FĀrstenberg court, through Winter, copies of his latest compositions. FĀrstenberg purchased copies of the symphonies K319, 338 and 425 (which survive in the FĀrstenberg collection at Karlsruhe), and the concertos K451, 459 and 488 (these copies are lost).
&nbs
p; 2. K488.
3. He had proposed that he should compose exclusive works for the prince, on a regular basis, for a fee.
Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters Page 68
